


Forgotten Guardians

by LordNesquik



Category: Fe - Fandom, Tanglewood - Fandom
Genre: Fe, Gen, Tanglewood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24636871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordNesquik/pseuds/LordNesquik
Summary: Two forest inhabitants happen upon a third. Sometimes, the most joyous interactions are happenstance encounters with strangers.





	Forgotten Guardians

With a deep breath, Fe opened his eyes to the forest once more. It lived and breathed around the stone circle that sat before the great tree. Grass was shuffled by the creatures that scampered through it, flicked around by the darting tails of lizards. Wind subtly waved the trees and echoed through the valley. Through it, a sweet, acidic cent wafted to his snout, and he turned his head to find its source.

High above him on a ledge hung a ripe pink fruit from its twisted plant. It shone with the light of the sun through the misty clouds.

With a devious smile, he sprinted towards its side of the valley. The platform his bounty grew on was preceded by a series of hanging rock steps, the first of which was far above his head. Fe looked for a path upwards and spotted a tree beside the wall of the valley. Its branches stretched high upwards adorned with deep teal foliage and nearly touched the first step of the earthen staircase.

He bounded towards the tree with an eager expression, kicking hard with his lower paws to get air before landing all four of his paws on its trunk. Gripping loosely onto it, careful only to sink his claws into the bark, he threw himself upwards with all four paws to hurtle up the tree. With each jump, he gripped higher, and each time he threw himself upwards until his paws all deftly landed on its tip. His tail wrapped itself around the tree’s branches to ensure his balance.

From his new vantage point, he twisted his neck to both sides until he spotted the rock steps he’d been looking for. He drew himself as low as he possibly could against the tree, bending his legs until he nearly fell, then all at once leapt toward the wall of the valley. He hurdled through the air and landed easily on the stone step, bending his joints to ease the fall. With a satisfied yip, he began climbing the stairs towards the juicy fruit hanging now just a few steps from his reach.

As he reached the highest step and set his paws around his prize, a different spot of color caught his attention far below him. Crimson and clean white stood out among the sodden blues and greens of the rained-out valley. He turned his head and narrowed his eyes towards them. As they came into focus, Fe saw they belonged to some standing, walking creature. Slowly, the foreign being walked forward towards the watchful eye of the great tree, constantly turning their head from side to side.

With great interest, Fe tossed himself off the overlook, still holding his fruit in an awkward half-hug. He slowed his descent against a tree and landed with a roll, twirling himself around his collected treasure to make sure it never touched the ground. The red-and-white figure was across the stone platform from his new position and he could see they was nearly twice his height.

The figure moved smoothly and quietly, with eyes heavy with paranoia. They kept their head low and turned its short, whiskered snout constantly to scan the environment. Its bushy tail twitched from side to side with its movements. At every splash in a crook or shuffling of grass, Fe watched them twitch slightly and turn towards the source before continuing forward again.

Fe walked quietly onto the stone circle with the figure. He set down his juicy pink fruit on the clean rock and moved towards them. Once they stood in the center of the circle, he drew a breath and gently sang out to it.

The noise that came out of his snout was far deeper than he expected to hear. It grumbled like the language of the grey, four-legged creatures he’d met not long before. Fe coughed lightly and refocused his voice, but the damage was clearly already done. The figure reflexively sprang into the air as its legs seized themselves into a jump. Its vividly colored fur stood on-end, nearly doubling its perceived size.

Fe drew a slow breath as the figure turned to face him. Their eyes were at first wide with fear, but as they looked around their expression shifted to confusion. Fe watched their ears flick as they turned all the way around trying to find the source of the growl, their eyes passing over his head several times. As Fe saw the tips of the fur on his paws turn white, he drew another breath and held a gentle note.

The figure finally looked down to see Fe, his eyes partially shut and his snout tilted upwards as he sang a shaky tune. His fur was rough and black with tips and triangular markings of radiant white. His long snout held rows of thin, pointed teeth. They let out a deep sigh of relief at the sight of Fe. Their paws still shaking with adrenaline, they crouched and sat their forepaws down to reach eye level with Fe, who only kept his note. The figure drew a paw inwards towards themselves and spoke out.

“Nymn,” the figure spoke, tapping their paw against their white-furred chest.

Fe let go of his note in a confused fashion, tilting his head to the side at the distinctly non-musical garble of noise that had left their mouth. He swung his paws around to form a response but found no gesture to express his feelings. At the sight of this, the figure looked up towards the sky and tilted his head backwards, their eyes seemingly lost in thought.

To try and make a connection, Fe drew another deep breath and sung a higher, steadier note, closing his eyes fully and pointing his snout upwards towards the figure. Over his singing, he could hear a gasp of realization and the rough clearing of a throat followed by a shaky note resonating from the figure in front of him. It was hung with unintentional vibrato and didn’t project, but Fe could hear the effort under the impurity. The figure’s note slowly rose to match his and created an out-of-tune yet well-meaning harmony.

As Nymn did his best to match the tiny creature’s note, he could hear leaves crunch under paws behind him. He recognized the bouncy footsteps as Echo’s, and as they drew close Nymn reached his right paw behind himself at the height level of her snout. He grabbed Echo’s snout just as she tried to open it to make a confused yip and gently held it shut until he heard Fe stop singing. He dropped his note and opened his eyes, short of breath, and released Echo, who shook her head and looked up at Nymn with confused anger.

Fe let the harmony ring for a moment before opening his eyes, closing his note, smiling wide, and doing an excited backflip in front of the figure. He bounced with joy and made a few more playful notes.

Surprising Fe, these notes were vaguely repeated by another creature. The tall red-and-white figure that he’d sung with remained silent as he turned and stepped to the side, revealing another figure behind them. The two looked similar, but this new creature had lines of black along their fur and was Fe’s height shorter than the first. They barked a short note and moved past the first figure towards Fe, reaching a paw out and rubbing it gently against his head. Fe cooed and leaned into their paw.

With an exasperated sigh, the taller figure crouched beside the two, looking between both Fe and the shorter figure. They drew a paw inwards towards themselves once more.

_“Nymn,”_ they spoke, more harmonious than last time. Afterwards, they gently put their paw atop shorter counterpart and spoke once more.

_“Echo.”_

Fe’s eyes opened wide in a flash of realization. The language was still not one Fe knew, but the sounds they made were finally identifiable. Fe tapped a paw against his glowing-white chest and sang the note he responded to.

_“Fe!”_

Nymn gave a swift, excited nod. Echo smiled wide and stoop up, extending her back leg and letting a howl out towards the sky. Fe joined in, noting Echo’s singing was measurably better than Nymn’s, before she soon ran out of breath. Nymn watched the two interact with a weary smile.

Echo returned to standing straight, her movements leveling out once more with a calming sigh. For a moment, the three stood still, simply looking at one another and the forest around them with renewed wonder. Fe wore a wide, childish smile. Echo had a similar expression, yet calmer and more genuine. Nymn cracked a smile, and though his eyes were still tempered with concern, his easy breathing made it clear he was no longer on edge.

Fe’s stomach vibrated within him. With a jolt of realization, he turned without another sound and walked away from the two. Nymn and Echo looked at each other with confusion as he scrambled to the edge of the stone circle.

Fe grabbed his ripe-pink fruit and held it up in front of himself. Before he could bite in, he took a guilty glance backwards towards Echo and Nymn. With a frown of reconsideration, he pulled his fruit back towards himself and strolled back towards the two. He held the fruit up towards Nymn, stretching his arms as high up as he could. When Nymn merely tilted his head at him, he pushed his arms out to gesture the fruit at him, bouncing on his paws.

Nymn bent down and gently took the fruit in his paws. Even for his size, it was still massive – half the size of his head. He rotated it slowly, inspecting its massive pink bulbs. It was even heavier than he’d expected.

He tapped his paw against his chest and then out towards Fe, who though it was a gesture of thanks, but couldn’t be sure. Then, he dug his paws into the center of the fruit and wrestled its core into two pieces, splitting the whole fruit in two. He handed one half to Echo and carefully bit a piece off the other.

Nymn slowly chewed his small bite, doing his best to control the juice that poured from the fruit. As he swallowed, he nodded and smiled, pulsing his snout open and closed to slowly chew away at the pulp. Echo took a bite of her half and gave a similarly joyous reaction.

While the two seemed preoccupied, Fe scampered back towards the tree he’d climbed to reach the fruit, ascending it once more. He retraced his steps back up to the top of the stone staircase and the fruit-bearing plat atop it.

Seeing Fe scamper off into the wilderness, Nymn looked down at Echo with an expectant expression and nodded his head to the side. She responded with a frown and a whimper, but nonetheless Nymn held his position. He gestured his paw down the path they had arrived from and took a step in its direction.

Echo grabbed onto his paw and held firm. He turned around to look at her once more, already preparing to have to convince her, but she stepped out of the way of his vision. Instead, he saw Fe, back in the center of the stone circle surrounded by three fruit as large and ripe as the one he’d brought before. He was singing a gentle yet pleading note in his language with his snout pointed towards Nymn. Though he was unfamiliar with the language, the almost pained warble in Fe’s tone made Nymn’s ears fold with guilt.

Nymn looked to his left at where Echo had moved to. She was looking up towards Nymn with a sly smirk, her paw swept out towards Fe in a welcoming gesture.

He smiled wearily, narrowed his eyes, and nodded in affirmation.

Echo grinned with joy and threw her arms around Nymn, who pulled his arms up with surprise to assure he didn’t fall over. He gently patted her on the head to return the affection before lightly pulling her away.

Fe watched as Nymn came back towards the stone circle. He gave another thankful gesture before picking up two fruits and handing one to Echo. Fe picked up his and eagerly bit in, now hungrier than before from the second climb. They both dug into their fruit. Echo ate easily and quickly, caring little for the juice that stained her fur. Nymn was far slower and more cautious.

As they finished and tossed the bare cores of the fruit to fertilize the soil, Fe’s ears perked up. He could hear an echo of his language reverberate through the opening under the great tree. His eyes opened wide and he flicked his head from side to side to keep track of the sound. It advanced towards him quickly, becoming louder and clearer with every moment.

Fe judged by their reaction that Nymn and Echo were unaware of the sound. They squinted their eyes at Fe in a gesture of concern. Fe yipped at them once, got low on his fours, and snuck off the stone platform, weaving between the trees in the direction of the sound.

As he scampered away, he heard paws patting quietly on stone behind him. He turned his head just enough to see Nymn and Echo’s spots of color closer than they were before, the two silently looking out at the forest together.

Fe centered his attention on the singing he’d heard. Over the sound of his own paws running on the dirt, the ambient sounds that resonated through the valley, and the running streams, he could barely make it out. It led him towards the great tree, but not under it. It seemed loudest under the branches of a tree beside its roots. He tossed himself towards it and climbed up its trunk.

Nymn and Echo stood side by side, enjoying the atmosphere of the forest. Nymn took in a deep breath and let out a deep sigh of relief. Echo smiled and glanced up at him. His eyes were calmer than she’d ever seen them before, slowly closing and opening with each breath he took. The sweet smell of fruit still lingered in the air, and the ambient cacophony of the forest blended into a calming symphony in their ears.

A spot of movement just inside her field of view caught her attention. She turned her head towards it get a better look at it and saw it was coming from the tip of a tree near the valley’s edge. Nymn noticed her intrigue and snapped out of his trance, looking around them for whatever it was she might be searching for. Echo tapped his arm and threw her paw out, pointing to what she’d seen.

Nymn narrowed his eyes and saw who he thought was Fe atop a tree in the distance. Soon afterwards, however, another of the same creature sped up tree and tacked them off it. The two figures spun to the soft ground below, playfully tussling with one another mid-air. Echo grinned from ear to ear at the sight and sent a playful howl towards the two.

After a short delay, the response was echoed back. It bounced all four of the canyon’s walls, creating the effect of surrounding Nymn and Echo. Fe held a long, high note, letting it ring all the way through the valley and harmonize with the reverberations of Echo’s howl. Once he was satisfied with his goodbye, he fell silent, letting their delayed song continue to echo as he scampered off to follow his friends.

Slowly, their sounds faded into peaceful background noise once more. The shuffling and flicking of grass, the waving of the wind on their fur, and the lingering sour-sweet smell of fruit washed over the pair’s senses.

Nymn let out a neutral yip to garner Echo’s attention. She looked up at him as he nodded his head to his side, flicking his ear towards the mouth of a short cave in the edge of the valley. The sun’s waning light peeked inside but stopped just short of the back of the cave.

It would make a cool place to rest.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work on AO3 for both of these fandoms, a fact which I'm both pleased by and sad about. It's a fun opportunity, but both of these games deserve so much more attention than they get. Tanglewood has wonderfully simple and dialogue-free storytelling, and Fe is a captivating environment from start to finish.
> 
> Tanglewood is getting a Nintendo Switch Definitive Edition, though, so perhaps there's hope yet. For Tanglewood, anyway.


End file.
